Canuk Greg from Ottawa, Canada

oh does this mean I can go whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
on your page

G'day Greg, I love getting personal messages on my page. Thank you very much!! Yes, I am fine and feel able to get on with another year of my life. I'm sure, as everyone has been saying, that it gets better as time goes by. This site has been a godsend for me though, there is absolutely no doubt about it, and it literally "makes my day". My new challenge is to get some of our hundreds of photos onto Flickr so people from other parts of the world can share my part of the world. Thanks for caring and sharing, Greg. You're a legend!

G'day Greg - The auction process is similar to what you have envisaged. The real estate agent, who I have engaged to sell my house, handles the process.
About a month before auction they take photos of the property and post these on a number of websites as well as alerting all the other sales people in the office. They also erect an auction sign outside the house. Adverts are placed in the local paper (they have a real estate section every Saturday) and the agent conducts a number of 'open houses' where potential buyers can view the property. These are usually held on the three weekends prior to auction and the fourth weekend is the auction when all the interested parties gather and the auctioneer , who must be licenced, hopefully sells the house. There are some hard and fast rules governing auctions that do not apply to a normal purchase, for instance, at hammer fall the highest bidder is considered the purchaser and must immediately pay a deposit, they cannot back out of the process and there is no cooling off period. Contracts are usually exchanged within 30 days although this is negotiable. So auction is very positive.
As the seller, I can put a reserve price on the property. The property is not sold until this is met. If it is met, then I have no further say in the matter ie, I cant withdraw. If it is not met then I can negotiate with the highest bidder and we may agree on a price. If not then we start again.
I pay a commission to the agent only when the house is sold. There is a set percentage but this is negotiable.
I have used the auction process in this case because the Canberra market at the moment is a sellers marked, there are not enough houses around so prices are generally good. Auctions cane be a bit hit and miss as a lot depends on the number of people who want your home. If there are several then the price will be driven up, if there are only a few then you might not get as much.
Agents in Canberra are clearing 80 to 90% of auctions at the moment, which is quite high, normally abouy 50% is considered good. A lot of houses are also being sold before auction. This is when someone offers to buy the property before the auction at an agreed price, obviously at or above the sellers reserve.
Hope this explains the process to you - I thought auctioning was a common practice all over the world. Not as smart as I thought I was....
[biggrin)

Hi Greg, always nice to see you on my page. Your daughter is fairly close to me. 3 hour drive. What made her choose Kelowna? My hubby goes to Kelowna every couple of months for shopping with the kids. Sometimes I go, sometimes I stay home for the peace and quiet. It would be nice to get together for a visit when you come to see your daughter.
Amber and I are back to her school work, she is really liking this curriculum. Hubby has a couple more months to work then off for the winter. We might go south to visit his sister in Jan. She and her hubby have a place for the winter. Would make a nice break.
Take care and hope to see you when you get out this way.

Greg, thanks for visiting my page. My latest holiday was to Australia and New Zealand. My husband and I met with June and her husband in Sydney, which was quite an achievement as my husband had originally been extremely leery of meeting anyone who had befriended me over the Internet! Ken and June were wonderful hosts and ambassadors of Australia! I'm going to try to get some pictures up soon.

Looking at your photo gallery reminds me that Canada is on my short list of places to visit. We've traveled much of the world, yet have never visited your country. Reprehensible, I know. So near and yet so far.

, Greg. It was great of you to visit me again for my birthday, even though my postings have been far and few between. I do visit the Sudoku site most mornings before everyone else is up and my day begins its headlong rush. I have enjoyed all your postings, so I feel like I know you better than those people who only post occasionally, like me. You have changed your photos since my last visit. While I loved your spirit bear, the photo of the parliament is spectacular. Your photos of India are interesting, but my favorites are those of Canada and your family. I have only visited two parts of Canada: Banff for a business meeting and Toronto to see Phantom of the Opera. On the train trip from Windsor to Toronto, much of the area reminded me of the Iowa area from my youth, except all the Canadian small farms seemed to have lavish displays of flowers. Obviously, summer beauty was important to them. Maybe because of the long, harsh winters? The Canadians I have met are open, friendly, intelligent, with a sense of humor. Your Sudoku acquaintance contributes to my previous impressions. Please continue sharing your Canada with us; I love your photos. Thanks for the comments on my photos. That red rock near St. George was sandstone. Did you find the Fremont Indians on Google?

CG - G'day again. I gave you a bum steer the other day when I said contracts are exchanged within 30 days. The contracts are exchanged at hammer fall and payment is finalised within 30 days - sorry.

Re your other query on inspections, in Canberra and it varys from state to state, I have to provide several reports as to the condition of the house. The purchaser is obliged to pay me for them on completion of the sale as they become their property, once again this is negotiable. Any prospective buyer can have reports done on the property at their expense. Obviously it is in my interests to allow this to happen.

Hey Greg - the 'comment box' shows when i click into my flickr and also when i click on the actual pic - not sure what else i can do....I'll ask someone else to try it for me as André has said the same thing too sometime back...thanks for visiting. x

Hi GC...Thanks for your visit with the heads upon the Moms Mabley clip, but I've been pretty busy of late just popping in and out until late and I forgot to go right to your page when I saw it again on easy...all of this to say.....I missed the clip . I'll have to see if I can track it down on you tube. I've heard much about her, but have never seen any of her performances. I could kick myself, but I'd most likely fall down trying. Next time I'll march right over to your page so that it won't happen again. Stay well my friend.

Hey Greg, like your choice on u-tube today. If you check out mine, you'll realise that my music taste is extremely varied! Hope you like African Music! Cheers

Greg, thanks for putting The House of the Rising Sun on, it's one of my all time favourites and I have this same recording I video taped off the TV years ago.
You talk about my giggling, if you watch at the end of the (serious) song, you will notice the first guitarist starts smiling and can't stop. I think it was Rebecca who commented on it years ago.

So Greg...you are partial to the Steelers huh???

Say it aint so Greg???? What do they have that the Eagles don't have....and don't tell me a winning record.....please! Oh, I'm soooo hurt! You didn't have to SAY it even if you are partial......

CG, oh wow, it's karaoke time! I howled along with them! Thank you for the party! (Thank heavens it was a party of one, I don't think the neighbors appreciated my enthusiasm)

Hey Greg, I thought you would find the Mafikizolo group interesting. They sing in Zulu one of the 13 official languages in SA. Please also search for two other groups, Malaika & Freshly Ground. Take care

Hi Greg; nice to 'see' you again.

Hello Greg, I see you have been visiting me
So you think I should submit my Kangaroo Photo to the site... mmm will have have to ask my pooter man (#1 son), to show me to !!!
The photo was taken last June, Hubby and I were away for the long weekend, staying in cottages with a group of friends in the Hills, Jarrahdale, about a 40 min drive from home. We had been on a picnic at the nearby dam, on the way back to the cottages spied these kangaroos on the side of road.

hehehe Sir Greg... you have been dreaming again.. non-see through hehe Lady R

Thank you Sir Greg, for putting that Sting song on, one that I always liked.

Greg, that P,P and M youtube was brill. We have the Bob Dylan version on our playlist, in fact, hubby and I just heard it, so listening to another version was fascinating, yet quite similar. Thank you.

ARRGGHH!! I just tried posting to you and it went sailing off somewhere! Once again...
Thanks for the visit. No leaves falling here as of yet. As a matter of fact it's been pretty warm. I'm waiting patiently, Fall is my favorite time of year here. Thanks for the PP&M. They can really get me singing along!♪♪♫

Greetings Greg! I don't post much anymore, but I usually work the puzzles. I have been trying to keep moving to lose the weight I gained this past year by sitting around too much. Can you please get rid of this rain! Take it to Canada will ya!

Hey Greg I like James Taylor's version of her song too. I also like Bob Dylans version of your P,P & M vid clip. Hmmmm My corner of the world you ask. Had a couple of lifes curved balls thrown recently but 'I am on the bright side of the moon', waking up to the chirping of the birds and warmth of the spring morning sun. Life's Good Hope all is good for you too

Thanks, Greg. This should go well with the coffee. I've never had a double chocolate fudge beavertail pastry, but it looks yummy! We can share . . .

Judy

Hello Greg ,every thing is ok , except the last incident last wednesday , but my family and me are ok , sorry that you are worried , i should post more .Thank you Greg

Greg~thank you so my for your post it truly means so much.we are keeping our fingers crossed
sorry I didn't reply to your post the other day,I was on your page and the phone rang or something...I wont tell Mama!

CG thanks so much for your visit, I really appreciate you calling by. We do have some lovely sunsets here in WA. After a day of searing heat we go out on to the balcony, enjoy the evening breezes and watch the sunset, what a life!!! All the best to you and yours.

Hey Greg, thanx for visiting. My garden is mainly native for water conservation and wild-life attracting. I do try and grow a few salad things in the summer in pots and odd corners. Nothing beats the taste of fresh food from the garden.

A good upbeat song to hear Greg. I am always amazed at how much you can find on youtube. Every time I want to find a song it is there. Take care and pop in again soon x

Hi Greg, thanks for the welcome home. As you correctly guessed we are both a bit zonked out but as far as I know no one has died of jet lag (so far) and I think we will recover. I have heaps of photos to process and will start feeding them into the system slowly over the next week or so. Good to hear from you again. Take care.

This has to be one of my favourites of all times and I was going to put it on my youtube drat.. I have several lined up still to play as my memory kicks in (that could take some time ).

Hello, Greg!
Thank you for visiting my page and checking my Flickr pictures too. Your comments are very nice.
And I'll try again to submit some of my pics, but it looks like it is never my turn
Thank you for lovely music on yourtube.

And now I'm off to your Flickr page to leave some "footprints" there.

Greg - You have had a good run on the viedos last week and you can't miss with Moody Blues.

Hi Greg, thanks for dropping in on my gallery. I gave also have different pics in my 'flickr' site. the galleries are certainly a great way to see the world without leaving your home. you are certainly a very popular 'chap' 35 pages, You must spend alot of time replying. good on ya. I will now flick through your Gallery. cheers.I have sumbitted some pics into the puzzles but none have appearred as yet.

As an X-employee of BofA - should I be offended?

I would liked to have had the bols of the President of SPNB in something that could have squeeze a lot harder than my hands, since he sold us out with loans to Trump and some other big ones that went bad and were written off and ended up in a merger with BofA. With that my retirement plans went right out the window.

I remember a stockholders meeting, where a little old lady got up and complained about SPNB stopping the payment of dividends - of which she used to live off. Smith said he also had stock and was also affected by the lack of dividends. This was during the merger. You should have seen the golden parachute that he got. He later took a job with the government or something overseeing stocks or banking. Maybe it was with the WTO.

Thank you my friend. It is a very special day!
and for the lovely song on your You Tube.

No offence taken. They called it a merger. Some of Security Pacific National Bank (SPNB) but the new entity was called Bank of America.

When it happened, I was surprised it was with Bof A, I thought that we would be taken over by Well's Fargo Bank. Over about a 3 year period, all of the new upper management was comming from Welll's Fargo (rather than promoting from within). It was looking like a stealth take over. Then one morning as I drove to work, the BofA merger was announced on the news. Shock!

BofA's HQ was in SF and SPNB's was in LA, they opted for SF. We were told that if we wanted to stay with the bank, we needed to put in our request to transfer to SF. I opted for the severence package, no way I was moving to SF, I had a nice home where I lived. The department I worked in had around 100 employees (I was a VP) and the last to be displaced (about 2 months after the rest of final 8 in department) - nearly a year after the merger was announced. My office was in LA and made many trips to SF over that year.

Wish'd I'd been about 5 years older at the time of the displacement, I would have been eligible for my retirement package instead - it was pretty much wiped out. 2 years later my husband died. I chose not to go back into the Corporate World, a year later moved up here. For the past 14 years, I've done volunteer work.

I will definitely pass on your positive wishes to my mother--she's overwhelmed that people from near and far are rooting for her. Caring for mom is the easy part, but I'm noticing that I don't "suffer the fools" with as much patience. So I grit my teeth and smile, smile, smile, and avoid those nasties who cause me stress. So far, so good! Hoping you are having joyous days with people you love, my Canuk friend!

Hi Greg, came by to see your YouTube. I haven't seen that video for years. Loved it then still do. How do you find all these great songs. I can never remember the titles or who did them. I guess I'll just have to depend on everyone here to find them for me.
Check out my YouTube, I made it.

Hi Greg! Thanks so much for the compliment on the butterfly - my husband took that pic probably a year ago. I couldn't upload it as we took it, the website requires very very small pics. Here's my husband's blog, he has a number of his pics posted there: http://blog.myspace.com/ansky23456.

Feel free to send him a note if you'd like a jpg of the original pic of the butterfly!

Thanks-Terri

Hey Greg, Herewith a few facts on African Buffalos: "Mainly preyed upon by lions. When a herd member is attacked, others will rush to its defence. Collectively a number of buffalo are more than capable to stave off an attack by an entire pride of lions. A wounded buffalo bull is regarded as most dangerous by hunters, and is one of the reasons why this animal is included into the so-called ‘big five’. This trait is the origin of many hunting adventures, myths and legends." I heard an amazing story about a hunter who was protected by a buffalo who stood guard over him, protecting him from lions - anyway, will find the real story and post it! Cheers